public service announcement: take the cake's carolina bbq sandwich

i'm a twitter deadbeat and hardly ever go on there, but fyi @geekjames posts the take the cake lunch specials on his twitter page daily. he also posts them on facebook, which i am much better at, so i see them every day and get super hungry and sad i don't work in northside.

(aside: someone emailed me recently to ask if i was on twitter and i forgot to respond. yes readers, i am... you can find me at @getinmahbelly. but i hardly ever go on there and only occasionally post stuff from my cell phone and totally forget to check the internet page so i pretty much never respond to people, not to be rude but just because i forget. also i pretty much never tweet about food so if that's what you're hoping for you may be disappointed.)

anyway so james got me all riled up today with his facebook posts. observe:

Eastern NC pulled pork for @TaketheCakeCafe's menu tomorrow smells wonderful as we enter hour 8 of smoking. #pulledporkgoodness

Yesterday at 3:50pm

Eastern NC pulled pork BBQ still slow cooking, going on 14 hours, looking and smelling pretty perfect. An hour or two & I can start pullin'.

Yesterday at 9:33pm

It is done! Fifteen hours later, 30 pounds of smoked Eastern NC-style pulled pork BBQ is cooling before it gets pulled for @TaketheCakeCafe

Yesterday at 11:13pm

BBQ on the menu @TaketheCakeCafe: A family pulled pork recipe from Eastern NC, it's vinegar & peppers-based unlike the usual. Served w slaw.

4 hours ago

Take the Cake's amazing fresh menu for today: • Curry Summer Pea Soup, • Spinach Feta Pie, • Tomato/Red Pepper/Cheddar Quiche, • Sticky Chicken w Peach Salsa & Asparagus, • Eastern NC BBQ & Slaw, w Pickled Cucumbers & Cantaloupe, • Flatbread w Sausage/Onion/Green Pepper/Fresh Mozzarella/Rapini, • Summer Berry Salad w Goat Cheese/Spiced Nuts, and gelato with your dessert?

2 hours ago

as if that was not enough for me to suffer through, i also saw this post on pfoody about how he is so entranced by james's bbq. i already have very little ability to fend off temptation anyway and that set me over the edge. so when eric came around asking what we were doing for lunch, i announced that we were getting our asses in the car and driving to northside. eric was game.

well we get there at 12:30 and they are already out of bbq! but i did not panic, they said james was on his way with more. eric and i settled in at the counter and i began giving the serious hungry eye to everyone within sight. i was getting a bbq sandwich dammit if i had to wait all day.

finally james arrived and we celebrated. the pork was everything i hoped for. juicy, meaty, tender, flavorful. the slaw was awesome. my one tiny complaint is that the bun came from a bag, but i'm guessing that has to do with volume... they probably could not get enough fresh rolls to handle the mass piles of bbq.

before

as we chowed down, james came over to chat and also introduced me to pfoody himself, who was there for the sandwich. "hi, i'm liz," i said. pfoody gave me a confused look. "i'm get in mah belly," i told him. "oh i know who you are," he said." i love saying that. the best is when someone says, "who are you?" and i say, "get in mah belly!" anyway.

after

so the bbq was amazing as you can see. we loved it. we ordered treats to take back to the office (a red velvet cupcake, a coconut cupcake, and a macaroon) and headed back downtown. now my belly is full but i can't concentrate because all i am thinking about is pork.

so here is your psa: there are still 11 lbs. of pulled pork left for lunch tomorrow. get there when they open (11 am?) and you should be able to get some. this pork is not to be missed.

(photos courtesy of eric)